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between a twig and a cigarette butt — six of them. He picked one up and held it in better light. It was smoothed from handling, but whether it was a bone or not, he didn't know. He picked up the others, looked them over, then held them like Natalie held them, and dropped them on the disk.
    It seemed to be a random pattern. It meant nothing to him. Twig-things lying on a piece of marked-up leather.
    “You have to learn what they mean,” Natalie said.
    Jack gasped and threw himself back.
    “I'm sorry. I thought I made noise coming in.” She smiled and nodded at the bones. “You can touch them if you want. They didn't mean anything to me either, at first. It takes a while to learn. Quite a while.”
    “I should have asked.” His heart was still thumping. He finally noticed that she was bloody up to her wrists and held the blood-streaked rabbit by its back feet.
    Natalie circled the counter and dropped the rabbit flat in front of her and began trussing it.
    “I apologize for bothering your things.” He sat on a stool opposite her, close to her.
    “No need,” she said, as her hands kept busy with the cord. “You can touch me or anything of mine all you want. Maybe we could get you a set of finger bones some day.” She reached across and affectionately touched his cheek, leaving a smear of blood. Then she leaned toward him and kissed the spot. Her lips came away reddened, but not bloody-looking.
    “No, I couldn't use them.... I was just—” He absently touched his cheek; his fingers came away red. “— curious.”
    Natalie busily wrapped the rabbit in a piece of newspaper and made a final tie. “I won't be long. I'm looking forward to the sweet potatoes.”
    Jack had gone around to the sink and was rinsing his fingers and cheek out of a bowl of water.
    “You're sure you'll be safe?” he said. “Some of those people.... I could come along.”
    “Me be safe? I'm the biggest predator in this valley of the shadow of death. Why should I fear evil?”
    As she stepped around him, she kissed him on the cheek, leaving a red smear where he had just wiped his face clean. “While I'm gone, decide what glasses we'll have the wine in tonight.” Then she was out the door with her parcel.
    He wiped his cheek again and noted that where she had been working with the rabbit, there wasn't a trace of blood. He wandered aimlessly around the room a minute until a movement caught his eye, out the window near the rabbit hutches.
    He went outside to the cages to check if it was Artie. “Artie pal! Stick your head up!” Jack stood motionless and listened. There was nothing except a ruffling noise from the hutches. He looked inside the nearest one.
    The big rabbit stood terrified of him, flat against the back of his cage. His facing eye was large as a marble and black as Natalie's hair. Jack couldn't imagine how it could breathe that fast. Its sides almost fluttered.
    Jack reached for the latch and had touched it before he stepped back. “Nooo. Sorry guy.” When he turned to go back, he nearly walked into her butcher board. It was a dark-stained slab; her skinning knife stood perpendicular by its point. Around on the ground were wads of bloody hair and few strings of intestines.
    He and the rabbit observed at each other.
    “You watched with your one cowering eye as your pal was killed and gutted.” Jack shoved his hands in his back pockets, took a few steps away, and looked at the far Sierra. It was covered with an even pack. Only wolverines or someone being chased would try to cross.
    He turned back. “What the hell. She probably knows I'm doing it anyway.” He flipped latch and swung the door open. “Don't thank me. You'll probably be torn apart by coyotes.” The rabbit's side fluttered and its eye seemed one huge pupil. At Jack's second step backward, there was a noise and a blink of gray. It had absented its space before Jack could form the thought.
    “Say hello to Artie, if you see him.”
    He trudged back to the